Q: should people be killed for committing serious crimes?
A: I used to support the death penalty. I no longer do. My reasons for this change are many, but I'll try to give just a few. First, with the development of better scientific method, we are learning how many innocent people have been sent to prison. Society has a right to protect itself, but it is a tragedy when an innocent person is sent to prison; it is more than I can bear thinking that an innocent person would be put to death. Second, my religious beliefs are that a person can be forgiven no matter how heinous the crime if there is true repentance and a confession of faith. If we foreshorten a person's life, we may take away that person's chance for forgiveness and spiritual redemption. Third, the death penalty is not given out in a rational manner; I have known of truly horrendous and intentionally done crimes such as the killing of a child where the person got life, and I have known of cases where someone got the death penalty for killing someone in a drunken brawl. I am in no way excusing the drunk, but I have no problem in saying the killing of a child was a more culpable act. I have other reasons, but I'll just stop by saying, I have great sympathy for the families of the victims, and if I were in their shoes, I might well be demanding the death of the person who killed my loved one. However, the simple reality is killing the criminal won't bring back the loved one and two wrongs don't make a right.
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